Trust. Faith. Peace. Patience.
Trust. Faith. Peace. Patience.
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27
Turmoil. Uncertainty. Chaos. Fear.
"Take heed that no man deceive you. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars"
Matthew 24:4b, 6a
Watching the news over the course of the day today, the broadcasters all seemed to focus on how bad the news was that the UK had voted to exit the EU: “Brexit”. I understand; sensational fears, dramatic headlines, it all sells! And, I also understand that there is a “bad news” aspect to the stories; things will change and that has consequences. As Christians though, we should not be afraid of these things. We should not allow ourselves to fall prey to fears associated with “what if” or “what about tomorrow”.
Two things should be central to the Christian mindset in these times of turmoil. First, they will happen! It is inevitable that time changes everything. The world is marching on. Governments have risen and fallen, even in my brief view of time. Financial markets can create great benefits one day, and another steal it all away. And, companies make changes based on that, and we may not have the job we have today because of the influence of some external “market” pressure that we have no control over (James 4:13-15).
But the second point should be the controlling factor in all our hearts: God is not surprised by anything that happens in His realm. Too often, in the twenty first century, we have an arrogant perspective about the limited amount of “time” we can see. We view everything as though we are in complete control of our “destiny”, at least within the seventy, or so, years of our existence. And, we forget to look outside our time, viewing both history and the prospective future that will likely carry on after we are no longer breathing.
If I may, we spend too much time reading the New Testament of our Bibles, and not enough time in our Old Testament. The more we read our Old Testament, the more we have a perspective of how small we are in the landscape of time. How many times did the Children of Israel experience the rise and fall of their existence during the book of Judges? What about during the era of the Kings? Tough times occurred often. Those that had their focus on God saw it through. Those that did not, fell away.
Jesus spent significant time preparing the disciples for what life would be like after His death and resurrection. They couldn’t understand it at the time that He gave it to them, but it all sank in later. (”These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.” John 12:16). The two verses quoted at the opening are from some of the time that He spent outlining things that would come. Jesus wanted them to understand that it was not going to go as they planned, but that it was within the Father’s plan. And, by the power of God, His Holy Spirit would guide those that entrusted themselves to Him; they would see it through.
Rest assured, God knew that the UK vote would turn out as it did. And, that He has complete control of the situation. Rather than allow ourselves to get distracted in our purpose by the things that occur around us, lets place our trust in The ONE that knows, and let HIM work out the details.